James 2:14-26 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
INTRODUCTION
What is the relationship between living a holy life and salvation through faith in Jesus? That’s the basic question that James answers in this passage. He had already indirectly addressed certain aspects of it, but here he explicitly answers and defends his answer. In short, James argues that there is an indivisible connection between genuine faith in Jesus and good works.
In an attempt to make things as clear as possible, I’m going to preach on this passage over the next two weeks, and divide it into four parts. In the first part (which I’ll cover today), I do my best to lay out James’s basic line of thinking. In the second part, I present the “problem” introduced by Paul’s seemingly contradictory argument on the same subject. In the third part, I offer what I believe to be the biblical “solution” to the “problem”. And in the fourth and final part, I explain what it all looks like in practice.
At the end of the day, I hope and pray that these two sermons will help you come to a greater understanding of this passage and therein a greater appreciation for the place that righteousness is meant to have in your life and in our church. I also hope and pray that through that greater understanding and appreciation, you will all experience a new or renewed Holy Spirit-empowered conviction to walk in righteousness and a corresponding Holy Spirit-infused assurance of salvation.
JAMES’S BASIC ARGUMENT
Does God care about whether you live a holy life? If so, what’s at stake if you are or are not holy? Exactly how holy do you need to be? In what ways do the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus affect this? What, if any, connection is there between our holiness and our salvation? Again, these are the kinds of questions James had in mind when he wrote our passage for today. And, of course, these questions are at the very heart of the Christian faith.
James doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about the relationship between faith and works, but he does give us some critical parts. James’s main point is that any claim to have saving faith in Jesus that is not accompanied by a life of increasing holiness, is a lie. Good (holy) works are a necessary part of salvation in Jesus. To help his readers understand and accept this claim, James explained and defended it around four examples (two imaginary, and two from the OT). Let’s consider each right now.
Hungry and Naked Brother (14-17)
James began by asking a simple question, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?”. He further wonders, “Can that faith save him?”. After a brief example he tips his hand in such a way that we know his questions were rhetorical. “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” James declared.
As a means of convincing his readers of the obviousness of his claim, he gave his first example—the example of one of them claiming to have faith in Jesus and encountering a Christian who was without food and clothing.
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
The situation described by James is as simple as it is compelling. It’s a version of the Good Samaritan story told by Jesus (Luke 10:25-37). In it, he invites his readers to consider a Christian man who, [implied] through no fault of his own, had come to a place where he lacked the very basic necessities of life. Perhaps through sickness or persecution, this man was short on food and clothing.
Next James invites his readers to imagine themselves coming upon the man who was lacking. James wants them to assume they are well enough off themselves and, upon seeing the plight of the first man, expressing compassion to him, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled.”
So far, so good, right (and that’s the point; James is drawing us in)? At this point we’d expect James’s imaginary reader to help in some way. However, the story turns when we find out that instead of offering any actual assistance (peace, warmth, or fullness), James’s well-wishing reader simply continued on their way, doing nothing to improve the suffering man’s situation.
James wants us to recognize the audacity of such a response to such an encounter. And then he wants us to ask ourselves whether or not the claim to have compassion in this situation is trustworthy. While we might have been inclined to believe that it was genuine at first, James urges us to see that a person’s actions tell a much more accurate story than their words.
More to the point, then, if in this hypothetical example, the incongruity of the his reader’s words and actions cause us to doubt the authenticity of their words, we ought to have the same skeptical response when we come across someone in real life claiming to have faith in Jesus but without the good works to back up their claim.
There are three main things to take away from this first example of James. First, you’ll notice that James was addressing a person’s claiming to have faith, “if someone says he has faith…” (14). Whether or not the person actually has faith is an entirely different matter; and the matter James most directly addresses.
Second, you’ll also notice that James did not deny that faith is necessary for salvation. What he denied was that “faith by itself” was enough. Faith alone is “dead” (v.17) faith. It is not alive and, therefore, is not “good” for anything (v.14), much less good to save someone from their sins (14).
Third, the kind of faith that is good, that can save, that is alive, is always accompanied by good works.
Again, James’s thought experiment was meant to highlight the absurdity of the claim that genuine faith can exist apart from genuine works of righteousness.
Someone and the Demons (18-19)
James’s first example was from the perspective of a hypocrite interacting with an authentic believer. This time it’s from the perspective of an authentic believer confronting a hypocrite.
Again, in his second example, James invites his readers to consider a man of genuine faith confronting a man whose claim to faith is in question (“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works’” vs.18). The man of genuine faith challenges the other man to prove the authenticity of his. It’s as if the man were saying, “You claim to have faith in Jesus? That’s good. But lots of people are doing that these days. What evidence would you offer that I might believe your claim?”
We’re meant to imagine the man on trial responding with what he probably thought would be a safe and sufficient answer, “I know my faith is real because I believe that God is one.” With this answer, he was reciting the beginning of the Shema, the most basic profession of faith a Jew might make. We find it in Deuteronomy 6:4. It begins, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!”
Rather than accept this answer, however, the man of genuine faith called on the demons to testify against the man, “You believe that God is one; you do well. [But] even the demons believe [that]—and shudder!” The foulest fallen angel, Satan himself, knows (and believes!) that God is one. To prove that your faith is real, you’ll need to do better than Lucifer.
The true believer offered something different. He said, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (vs.18). Good works, righteous deeds, acts of holiness, obedience to the commands of God, flowing out of a person is what demonstrates the authenticity of his or her faith; not mere claims of faith or regurgitation of true things about God.
In this example James gives us a few more parts to his answer to the question of the relationship between faith and good works in the life of a Christian.
First, he reiterates the fact that a claim to have faith is not the same as actually having faith.
Second, he teaches that having orthodox beliefs is good (even necessary), but not enough. That’s a big deal. Good doctrine alone is not a sufficient mark of real faith.
And third, once again, faith and good works together is the mark of a true follower of Jesus.
Abraham (20-24)
James’s final two examples involved real people and real situations from the OT. In particular, he offered stories from the lives of Abraham and Rahab as evidence of the necessary connection between faith and works.
He introduced the story of Abraham with quite a jab, “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” (v.20). And without pausing for an answer, apparently assuming that his readers accepted the fact that they were fools and did want to be shown that faith apart from works is useless, James went on to explain what Abraham teaches about the relationship between faith and works.
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
To appreciate what James was getting at we need a little bit of background. In Genesis 12 God met with Abraham (Abram) and made a number of promises to him. Among them was a promise to make Abraham into a great nation, a man of many offspring. And yet, some time later (we read in Genesis 15), aging Abraham was still childless. He brough his concern to God and in 15:5 God answered him by taking him outside and saying, “’Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then [God] said to [Abraham], ‘So shall your offspring be.’”
Though Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were getting older and older, he nevertheless believed God’s promise. He didn’t know when or how, but he truly believed that God would follow through. Thus, in Genesis 15:6 we read, “And [Abraham] believed the LORD, and [the LORD] counted it to him as righteousness [justified him].”
The important thing to see here is that God counted Abraham as righteous [justified] (Genesis 15) before Isaac was even born (Genesis 21), not when he put Isaac on the alter (Genesis 22). This will become an important part of the sermon next week, but here we simply need to see that James’s point is that the belief in God that Abraham expressed in Genesis 15 would have been meaningless if it had not caused Abraham to offer up Isaac in Genesis 22. It was the act of offering his son, that gave goodness and life and usefulness and completeness to Abraham’s faith. It was Abraham’s action based on his faith that proved the authenticity of his faith.
We really need to get our heads around this so I need to say a bit more. James pictured God’s declaration of Abraham’s justification (in Genesis 15) as kind of promise that would be fulfilled at the time of his obedience (in Genesis 22). That’s what he meant by “The scripture was fulfilled…” (23). In fact, Abraham was told by the angel of the LORD, “now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:12). As a result, there was no new mention of justification, but God restated and reiterated His covenant promises with Abraham.
All of that, James concluded, conclusively proved “that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” And in that we are given three more pieces of James’s faith/works puzzle.
First, for James, it’s unqualified folly to believe genuine faith can exist apart from works.
Second, in keeping with his claim that worksless-faith is good for nothing (14) and dead (14), here James adds useless (20) and incomplete (22) to the list as well.
And third, James again describes faith that acts (in good works) as the only kind of faith that is real.
Rahab (25-26)
James’s final example involves Rahab. The entire story is found in Joshua 2-6, but the upshot is that the Israelites had been freed by God from Egypt, they’d wandered in the wilderness for 40 years on account of their faithlessness, and it was now time for them to take the Promised Land.
To that end, Joshua, the man who took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died, sent spies into the land. Once there, they met a woman from Jericho named Rahab. She was a prostitute. Surprisingly, Rahab allowed the Israelite spies to hide out in her home for the night. That very evening, though, the king of Jericho somehow found out about this and sent men to confront Rahab. Rather than turn the Israelite spies in, however, she hid them and then lied to the king’s ambassadors to protect them, sending the guards on a wild goose chase.
Once the king’s men were gone, Rahab shared her motives with the Israelite spies. She explained that her people knew of the mighty power of the God of Israel and were greatly afraid because of it. In the fear of the LORD, Rahab offered to help the Israelites escape and then conquer her city if only they would spare her life and the lives of her family as well. She kept her word and helped the Israelites take Jericho.
James wants his readers to see that if Rahab had merely promised to do good, but failed to deliver when the time came, her promise would have been meaningless. Actually, it would have been less than meaningless since a betrayal would certainly have led to greater problems than if she had made no promise at all. James used this story to help his readers understand that it was Rahab’s actual helping of the Israelites that proved her sincerity.
25 And in the same way [as Abraham] was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
And the main point of all of that for James was that “…as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” It is a fact that by God’s design, a human body needs a spirit to remain alive. In its fullest and purest sense, death is (by definition) the spirit leaving the body. For that reason, a body without a spirit is dead. If you don’t have both body and spirit together, you don’t have physical life.
In the same way, James argued, faith needs works to be alive. If you don’t have faith and works together, you don’t have spiritual life. Just as a body without a spirit is a dead body, faith without works is a dead faith.
In this example James again explained and established that the relationship between faith and works is such that, even though faith is necessary for salvation, genuine faith always produces good (righteous) works. He earnestly wanted his readers to understand that it makes no biblical sense to claim to have the kind of faith that God counts as righteousness that does not result in actual acts of righteous obedience.
And, finally, through Rahab, James showed that a person’s justification is directly tied to the good works they do as a result of their faith. No works flowing from faith, no justification.
CONCLUSION
What is the relationship between living a holy life and salvation through faith in Jesus? By way of four examples, James answered this question in a small handful of ways. He said that in order to be saved, a person must have faith. However, a claim to faith is not the same as actually having faith. In fact, a claim to have faith apart from corresponding good works is dead, not good for anything, useless, and incomplete. He went on to explain that even faith in good doctrine is not enough for someone to be justified.
In the end, James’s main argument is that a person can only rightly claim to have saving faith when their faith is marked by good works. And that is simply another way of saying that God’s people must not be hearers only, but doers also.
The main takeaway for all of us from this passage is to examine our claim to have faith in Jesus in light of the way we live our lives. Where we find belief in the person and promises of God, coupled with conformity to the character and obedience to the commands of God, we can be confident that our faith and salvation are real. Where we do not find this combination, we’ve found a fresh charge to look to Jesus for salvation and the transformation that always comes with it. Whatever else may be true of the Christian life, it is never less than this.
OK…so…if this passage from James was all we had on this subject we’d be left with clarity, but we’d also be left with no small amount of concern. Thoughtful readers of James are left wondering, how many good deeds do I need to have in my life to be confident that my faith is genuine? What happens when I find some measure of hypocrisy? What do I do when I want to have good works, but they don’t seem to be coming?
On top of those concerns, as you all know, James isn’t the only biblical writer to address this subject. This letter is a part of the Bible, and all of the writings in the Bible are equally inspired by God and are equally true. Therefore, when we read James say, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone,” and another part of the Bible say, “… by grace you have been saved through faith… 9 not a result of works…” (Ephesians 2:8-9), we need to get to the bottom of it. Are we saved by grace alone through faith alone, or by grace through faith and works?
All of that is where we are going next week. In the mean time, rest in the certain knowledge that the blood of Jesus is enough, truly enough, for all who turn to Him in faith. It is enough to forgive us of all our sins—our bad works and failure to do good works. And it is enough to empower us for all obedience. It is for that reason that we now come to the Lord’s Table.